cult film freak: KRISTY SWASON IN WES CRAVEN'S SCIENCE-HORROR 'DEADLY FRIEND'

Blu Ray Cover Artwork for DEADLY FRIEND Year Released: 1986 Rating: ****

A year before giving her class the lowdown about FERRIS BEULLER'S DAY OFF and around five years until losing her adorable baby fat for the deliberately camp-filled BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Kristy Swanson starred in another Classic Monster-inspired b-movie directed by Wes Craven, a horror-genre director having so much silly fun here it seems he hadn't yet realized A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET had blown up on video...

Thank God because DEADLY FRIEND, a modern take on the FRANKENSTEIN tale, packs one helluva wallop, particularly a basketball beheading so pivotal and scene-stealing it should be backed by celebratory fireworks...

Matthew Labyorteaux and Kristy Swanson in DEADLY FRIEND

The real star is Matthew Labyorteaux, and with the swift 90-minute runtime his brainy and vulnerable suburban new-kid never develops past being the creator of the rudimentary robot taking down the neighborhood bully...

But the LITTLE HOUSE star does a fine job as a different kind of Dr. Frankenstein: a young grad student guest-lecturing in the same University class he's taking, and with a dependable single mom in Anne Twomey, the future looks bright...

Opening Credit font for DEADLY FRIEND

So with his equally nerdy yet whiny thus doomed best friend in Michael Sharrett, Wes Craven's DEADLY FRIEND is part sci-fi thriller while the last half... after Swanson goes from literal girl-next-door to reanimated blue-mascara-eyed monster in her creator's basement... is a body count kill fest...

That includes Swanson's abusive father, making her Samantha a killer worth rooting for till the inevitable tables turn, by which time the audience (along with Anne Ramsey's head) have already had a smashing time.